I wish Darden had the most cutting edge Career Development website of all major MBA programs. I’m fairly disappointed in the current one, so I’m working on a new one. Here are some of my gripes with the current system. Actually, there are two current systems. How awkward is that. Half of the information is in one site, half is in the other.
On one side of the site the CDC “stores” all the job search educational components. There is a ton of good stuff there, but I find it hard to find the thing I’m looking for, and I had a hand in putting it there. I guess my excuse is that over the past three years, we have continually created and added really good content, but we had no logical map of the site, so we just put it where we could. The end result now is a bit cumbersome—good stuff is there, but it takes longer to find it than I wish it did.
Then there is the other half of the site: the half in which all the “transactions” take place, like signing up for events, bidding for interviews, dropping resumes, etc. This half is called Darden Solutions and was designed here at Darden. It has amazing functionality and customize-ability, but yet it too feels a bit clunky sometimes. I find it hard to find opportunities, or make students aware of non-standard type opportunities, or deal with companies that want exceptions to the norm. Sometimes I feel the type size or font distracts rather than enhances the communication. And I don’t have much control over any of these things.
So we embarked a few months ago on creating a new site. We worked both with an outside consultant (a former student, user of the system, and current website entrepreneur) and with Darden’s best technical folks. The key things I have been thinking about for the update to the site include making it more interactive for students, simple and intuitive to navigate, and action oriented. We are making progress. We plan to have places where students can:
· Alert each other about off-Grounds events
· Promote their club activities
· Draw attention to companies that are doing good (and bad) things
· Seek leads from one another
· Provide feedback on companies for other students
· Ask for advice from the CDC or each other
· Give real time feedback to the CDC
We also plan to create space for student generated content that will provide company interview questions, company feedback on interviews and internships and company research. Each company may have its own “wiki” space.
I’m also re-writing all the content, more in line with current thinking on all the key subjects.
In the next few weeks we will be seeking student input on the design and the functionality. If you can help me, let me know. I’m tired of the website not working as hard for you and for me as it should.